This invention relates to a printer system, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for coordinating the printing of the front side and back side of a page for a page printer system having the capability of printing both sides of the page on a single pass of the paper.
In the prior art there are many types of printers that are used with data processing equipment. Examples of such prior art printers are impact printers which include daisy wheel and dot matrix printers, and laser printers which use a copier process coupled with a laser that writes the material to be printed to an image drum within the printer. There are also many other types of prior art printers. All these prior art data processing printers only do one sided printing, and to accomplish two sided printing, paper already printed on one side must be placed back into the printer to have the reverse side printed. This is an awkward, time consuming process, and mistakes are often made in the process. Attempts to create two-sided printers have resulted in printers having complex paper handling apparatus that print first on one side of the paper and afterwards print on the other side of the paper. Such two-sided printers are expensive and require frequent maintenance, usually by a skilled technician, due to their complicated construction.
Accordingly, there is a need for a printer that can perform two-sided printing, sometimes referred to herein as "two-page" printing, without having to reload paper already printed on one side back into the printer, and that can perform two-sided printing at a much faster rate than heretofore possible. The apparatus and method of the present invention provides for the coordination of printing the front side and back side of the page.